Soup's on
Sunn’s, Twin Tails, 520 Fifth Avenue, hottest new developments, London weekend, La Tejana DC, best restaurant soups, MORE
REAL ESTATE • Market Reports
Moving on up
It was a strong finish to 2024 for Manhattan real estate, especially at the high end. Per Elliman, sales above $5M rose 12.5% over last year. That rise in sales drove an 8.1% decrease in luxury inventory as 2025 dawns. Other Q4 Manhattan highlights:
Average size of luxury sales rose to 3,167 SF, a 3.7% increase over last year
Luxury deals closed at 8.6% discount from the last list price on average
62.3% of all sales were cash deals
New developments accounted for 14.3% of transactions, up from 12.3% last quarter
Speaking of new developments, Marketproof has the numbers on the full year, which was “far stronger” than 2023. Sales volume rose 14% in Manhattan and 6% in Brooklyn, buoyed by heightened late-year demand. Luxury new developments fared particularly well — 494 deals were inked above $4MM, up 16% over 2023. Here, the new buildings that saw the most action:
520 Fifth Avenue (Midtown, above), 82 deals
The Huron (Greenpoint), 73
One High Line (West Chelsea), 62 (intel)
Claremont Hall (Morningside Heights), 58 (intel)
Monogram (Turtle Bay), 52
Tribeca Green (Tribeca), 54
The Broad Exchange Building (Wall Street), 43
The Treadwell (Lenox Hill), 40
REAL ESTATE LINKS: Brooklyn Q4 market reports: median price, townhouse sales, and inventory all up • What’s up with the rise of pocket listings? • NYC co-ops are now begrudgingly accepting LLCs • After half a century, an Upper West Side building loses its gargoyles.
RESTAURANTS • First Word
Putting down roots
In mid-December, in Dimes Square, it happened: Sunny Lee, beloved for her pop-up Banchan by Sunny, opened her first brick-and-mortar restaurant, Sunn’s. Her famed banchan arrive in partnership with Grant Reynolds of Parcelle, who oversees the wine program. Their new space is tiny but warm, with exposed brick and only 24 seats. It’s a tight squeeze, but it hardly matters — you’re there to enjoy Lee and her modern-yet-homey cooking.
After stints at restaurants including Blue Hill and Estela and working as a private chef, Lee discovered a passion for banchan — the small side dishes often accompanying a Korean meal — and developed her pop-up, which she’s hosted in various forms since 2015. This is to say: Sunn’s has been a long time coming.
Despite the protracted build-up, Lee remains remarkably effervescent (sunny, even). Sitting at the butcher block counter across from the kitchen, I delighted in watching her work — joking with the staff, tasting the food, and periodically dropping dishes at tables and thanking guests for being there.
When she delivered our salad, the chef encouraged us to think of it as “vegetable nachos” and eat it with our hands. We did as we were told, layering silky sesame jang, pickled watermelon radish, and rich buttery dates on bitter-crisp radicchio. Asked what made the potato salad banchan so good, she smiled: “sour cream,” a humble response for what was the best potato salad of my life — creamy yet airy, with just the right amount of tang.
It’s obvious why Sunny Lee amassed her devoted following: Not only is her style distinct and food excellent, but she’s also having fun. Start your meal with the playful, ever-rotating banchan plate, and end it with the crispy, squidgy sesame mochi cake, marinated in honey, sesame oil, and salt. You’ll taste what I mean. –Phoebe Fry
→ Sunn’s (Dimes Square) • 139 Division St • Wed-Sun 5-10p • Reserve.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Friday Routine
Curtain call
TAYLOR TOLBERT • director of marketing • Quality Branded
Neighborhood you work in: Midtown
Neighborhood you live in: Chelsea
It’s Friday afternoon, how are you rolling into the weekend?
We recently opened a new Southeast Asian restaurant, Twin Tails, so I’ve been out and about every night this week. I spend a lot of time in the restaurant, which I genuinely enjoy. It’s so fun to have friends stop by and see what I’ve been working on for months and months — and finally experience it.
Where are you drinking or dining this weekend?
I’m laying low this weekend, but next week is jam-packed. Most notably, I’m going to Time & Tide on Wednesday night. I love (regular-sized) Goldfish crackers, so their very large version is enticing. It’s also really fun to go to other new restaurants that have opened around the time we opened ours — I think it gives a good sense of where NYC dining is, and where it’s headed. Then, I’m finally getting to Corima to do their tasting menu.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I have a ticket to see Romeo + Juliet on Broadway on Tuesday night. I’ve been splurging a bit on Broadway shows lately, since this season is full of great openings. I saw Sunset Boulevard and Oh, Mary — very curious to see how this version of Romeo & Juliet plays out.
Any weekend getaways?
This might be a geographical stretch, but I impulsively booked a too-quick weekend trip to London, which I’m really looking forward to. My list of restaurants to visit is way longer than the trip, so I’ll have to cut down. I hope to snag seats at Manteca and Bouchon Racine. Nothing planned stateside for the near future, but I’m still thinking about my summer weekend in the Finger Lakes back in July. My friends and I got an Airbnb in Branchport, laid by the lakes and grilled nonstop. It was so lovely and relaxing, mostly because I was nowhere near the grilling duties.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Marathons
La Bohème • Met Opera (Lincoln Center) • Sat @ 8p • orchestra premium, $295 per
Winter Jazzfest: Manhattan Marathon • Various venues • Fri-Sat • VIP pass, $265 per
Bucks vs Knicks • Madison Square Garden (Midtown South) • Sun @ 3p • sec 107, $685 per
CULTURE & LEISURE LINKS: 2025 NYC museum show preview • Breuer Building’s lobby may be saved after all • As art sales fall, auction houses turn to luxe goods • Marathons are hot • Luxe dog clubs, also hot.
GETAWAYS • Washington, DC
Home cooking
Moving to DC was hard. Previously, I’d lived in the great city of New York, London, NYC again, and finally Los Angeles. I loved all these places for their energy, and especially the breadth of exceptional dining options they offered.
When I first encountered La Tejana, I was intrigued by its promise of authentic breakfast tacos in the leafy neighborhood of Mount Pleasant. Co-owners Gus May and Ana-Maria Jaramillo had the history (with roots in Mexico and Texas), the right focus on the hard-to-get-quite-right flour tortillas, and that order-at-the counter energy that adds another layer. Still, I wasn’t totally convinced. And then I tasted the Uncle P tacos — scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, and queso drizzle — and realized something special is happening here.
La Tejana’s space is small, simple, and bright, adorned with flowers and cacti, bright blue tiles, and branded t-shirts. Its neighbors include well stocked specialty food stores (Each Peach), natural wine shops (Nido), and a bookstore dedicated solely to cookbooks (Bold Fork Books) — all things that are harder to come by in DC than I’d like.
Lines form before the doors open at 730a (another thing I’d never seen before in DC). The wait’s worth it, for those Uncle Ps and 512s (with chopped brisket), but also for the way that it makes me feel like I’ve found home again. –Kate Riesenberg
→ La Tejana (Washington, DC) • 3211 Mt Pleasant St NW • Breakfast: Wed-Sun 7:30a-1p, Dinner: Wed-Sat 5-10p • Reserve (dinner only).
GETAWAYS LINKS: Award-winning pastry chef opens new bakery Pinkerton’s in Kingston • André Balazs shutters Habitas-on-Hudson, his Upstate hotel near Rhinecliff • Amex shutters Equinox Body Lab at Centurion Lounge at JFK’s T4, adds new coffee bar • United moves up timeline for free Starlink wifi, starting this spring • 2025 hospitality trends to know, including new European visas.
GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines
Soups, elevated
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of NYC's best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@foundny.com.
Schnipper’s Quality Soups (Upper East Side), brand new spot with unusual selections from Hale & Hearty founders